On Wednesday, the President of Spain, Pedro Sánchezcommunicated on his social networks that he would take a few days to “reflect” on whether he d Should he continue in his position or resign? The message was given after the scandal unleashed by the complaint against his wife for the crime of influence peddling and corruption.
The truth is that the announcement of the spanish president surprised everyone. They even claim that Sánchez made the post threatening to resign in a four-page letter without even previously informing his closest ministers. In this sense, analysts evaluate different scenarios after the President’s threats.
Spain: the scenarios after the threat of resignation of Pedro Sánchez
PEDRO SANCHEZ.avif
The possible scenarios after the threat of resignation of Pedro Sánchez.
The truth is Pedro Sánchez canceled all his public activitiesincluding his participation in the campaign kick-off events for the crucial regional elections on May 12 in Catalonia.
According to analysts, Sánchez’s idea could have been to regain the initiative against the right-wing opposition in the midst of extreme polarization of Spanish political life. The President denounced the “severity of the attacks against him and his wife as a campaign of “harassment“and destabilization undertaken by the right.
Along the same lines, the Spanish president included in this campaign the opening of the judicial investigation against his wife. According to Oriol Bartomeuspolitical scientist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with this movement Sánchez tries to “change conversation coordinates“.
Furthermore, in dialogue with AFP, Paloma Romandoctor in Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid, explained that in this way she returns to “put the focus where he wants“.
Another scenario has to do with Parliament. Analysts believe that one of his options is to decide to submit to a question of confidence in Parliament, to demonstrate to Spain that he and his minority government continue to have the support of the majority in the Congress of Deputies.
Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan independentist and unpredictable ally of the government, urged Sánchez to submit to said parliamentary examination, a low-risk option since to pass it he only needs a simple majority of the deputies. Even most of his allies in Congress have already expressed their support for him.
Spain: the possible resignation of Pedro Sánchez
According to experts, the possibility of Pedro Sánchez resigning from the presidency should not be discarded. Antonio Barroso, analyst at the Teneo ideas cabinet, estimated that “the closest advisors to Sánchez and the leadership of the Socialist Party will dedicate the next few days to convince him to stay“, but that his decision is “particularly difficult to predict.”
In any case, with a resignation of Sánchez – who has been in power since 2018 – the socialists could propose other people to be sworn in as president of the government by Congress. The name that sounds the most is Maria Jesus MonteroMinister of Finance and former spokesperson for the executive.
However, it would be difficult for her to “build a majority,” according to Barroso, who also maintains that Sánchez could resign and convene early elections, to which he would appear again. In any case, to do this you would have to wait until the end of May, since the Constitution imposes a period of one year between two calls for the legislative and the last ones.
